For Social Media Marketers, SEO Is Much More Popular Than PPC

Social media marketers are much more likely to also use SEO in their marketing efforts than PPC, according to a new survey out today.

Social Media Examiner announced the results of its fourth annual survey, which this year had replies from more than 3,800 social media marketers around the world.

When asked what other marketing channels they use, search engine optimization (SEO) was the No. 2 response behind e-mail marketing. Paid search — or “online ads” as the survey called it — was far down the list at number six. Sixty-five percent of social media marketers say they use SEO, compared to only 38 percent who use paid search advertising.

B2B social marketers were slightly more likely to do SEO (67 percent) than their B2C counterparts (62 percent).

Going forward, 68 percent of respondents said they’re planning to increase their SEO efforts — a number that’s down slightly from 71 percent in 2011. Only nine percent this year said they have no plans to use SEO.

Only 43 percent of the social media marketers surveyed say they’re planning to increase their use of PPC advertising.

About The Author

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.

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I think the reason is because social media marketers are savvy enough to understand the in’s and out’s of SEO and why it’s a much better investment in time than PPC is in money (in most cases).

Justin Sous

Thanks for the post, Matt!

Marc, I’m glad you put (in most cases) in parenthesis in your comment. I was actually surprised at those numbers, the difference in Paid Search and SEO in particular. As a longterm strategy, there is no doubt that SEO needs to be the main focus. However, telling your clients that they’ll start seeing results from SEO in 6 months to 1 year from launch doesn’t always go over well… this is why we use a combined strategy of PPC and SEO. PPC provides results automatically. And although the cost per lead may be higher in the beginning stages of the marketing campaign, once the SEO is developed and some time goes by, organic results will slowly bring that CPL down. If these numbers that SME is reporting are in fact true, I’d be shocked. Especially since Google seems to be making small changes here and there that benefit PPC as opposed to SEO.

http://ciaoenrico.com/ Ciaoenrico

This might also be true because so many social media marketers used to be full-time SEOs. I remember looking at del.icio.us as a possible source of inbound links before deciding they were crap for that – but the potential for directly reaching consumers was there.

Paid search, on the other hand, is like asking 100 women off the street to have sex with you: You get slapped 99 times, but that 100th one… It’s not exactly the kind of mind frame you need for SMM.

http://robertclarkmtfs.com/ Robert Clark

The lines between social media and SEO are continuing to get more blurred and it looks like it is a trend that will continue.

http://twitter.com/FreshWebSEO Fresh Web SEO

I agree with you Robert Clark.
The line is blurry, because you need that social media effect to assist in the SEO, and vice versa.
Still it is crazy that PPC ranked in that low…that was unexpected to me.

smarlett

I always thought SEO was gay, but I must be wrong.

http://profile.yahoo.com/HE55X3ZLMWT4Y3N2RJTDOARARQ Dwight

I agree. Social media is the new SEO and its impact is unreal. We get more links though a power ful social message, our clients are engaged and the potential to re-engage with our customers is very good. Our site hasn’t done much of it as of yet, http://www.rightfitresumes.com/marietta-resume-writing-service, but we’re slowly moving in that direction.

http://www.marcensign.com/blog Marc Ensign

I agree with the strategy of combining the two, especially like you said in the beginning when you have very little to report for the first few months. It’s when you rely solely on PPC that it becomes unsustainable longterm. Too many businesses dip there toe in the water with a $500 a month budget and before they know what hit them there budget is up to $5,000 a month because they keep creeping it up higher and higher trying to bring in more leads. After all that time has gone by and all that money is out the window if they were to turn it off they go back to square one having not built up any equity online. It’s a losing strategy longterm compared to organic. Now, fast forward a few years from now and see what organic SEO looks like and it might be a completely different conversation!

http://twitter.com/BenjaminPack Benjamin Pack

The fact that the option was labeled “online ads” is extremely misleading, and could really skew results. We’d have to examine the specific wording/context of the survey to really know what’s up.

I agree that SEM is much less important today than it once was, however there is still a place for it in tactical efforts, especially for clients that aren’t willing to invest appropriately in SEO efforts.

America loves a quick fix. Why should Search be any different?

Steven Macdonald

Both SEO and social media are long-term strategies and the intelligent marketers won’t be focusing on the short-term. Each time I talk SEO, social media is included and I believe it will continue.

onesuperfund onesuperfund

PPC is costly than SEO…

http://www.facebook.com/people/Aiden-Moor/100001939456401 Aiden Moor

Nowadays both SEO and SMO are important to get visitors so one should balance everything to get visitors and visibility in search engine.

http://twitter.com/The_ShuttleBus George Shuttlewood

Maybe the reason for the low PPC usage in these results is that it may not come under social marketing responsibilities to manage this activity. In my experience social still isn’t integrated as part of the channel as companies are still trying to work out where it fits, and more often than not social is sitting in the PR/comms team rather than the Marketing team where all paid for media sits. Just a thought…

Yeap! Both SEO and Social Media are more effective way for now a days, by the way ppc is bit costly then seo.

http://twitter.com/FedericaGrazia Federica B.

I think that there should be an intelligent mix of SEO/SMO AND PPC, according to the specific needs of the campaing the Comapny is willing to accomplish.
SMO, in my opinion, is something that will increase its growth as the use of social media is getting more and more viral every single day. – It is easily recognizable just having a look to Socialbakers statistics, for istance.
Of course PPC can be useful to boost SEO and SMO activities, but only if the whole campaign is well designed and the targeted customers are well defined, other way it is useless.
To conclude: SEO/SMO shouldn’t EXCLUDE PPC, but should be integrated with it.
It is advisable, from my perspective, to activate PPC campaign on Social Networks where possible – Never forget the power of sharing and creating a buzz from a sinlge ad!

http://twitter.com/SteveOneClick Stephen Hall

It’s only a losing strategy long-term if you fail to understand the costs behind your business. This is kinda like blaming Groupon because your deal wasn’t profitable — if PPC isn’t working for you, don’t blame the vehicle….blame the driver.

Lindsey Mark

I think the results make sense from the perspective that many Social Media Marketers are content focused which from a high-level is more similar in skill set than the affinity to a Search Engine Marketer. For me it was surprising to see that press releases and direct mail rank above Search Engine Marketing.

To your point about including SEM, I think the results of this survey are inline with the “see what sticks” tactic often taken in marketing. I often see companies hire social media marketers, because they feel they should without a comprehensive marketing strategy. Luckily, this creates a competitive advantage for those that enlist the help of individuals like yourself.

http://www.brickmarketing.com/ Nick Stamoulis

Social media marketing and SEO work so well together. It’s no secret that social signals are impacting the search results, which means SEO people have to care about social media. On the flip side, great content (which is the lifeblood of social media) isn’t worth much if no one can find it in the SERPs to share. Both are a long term game, working towards the same goals.

http://www.antonkoekemoer.com/ Anton Koekemoer

Indeed and with all the social media integration on Google, the lines gets more blurrier.

http://marketingsutra.blogspot.com/ Vijay

Is PPC ranked low because social media marketers would rather not say they use it? They are the high priests of search after all, why would they admit to (sniff) paid advertising? One comes across this in market research all the time. People give out politically correct answers in responses — and do something else entirely.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Sandy-Hubbard/1294899719 Sandy Hubbard

Please proofread your story… you have a glaring typo. PPC vs. PCC

Matt McGee

Thanks Sandy – all fixed.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Sandy-Hubbard/1294899719 Sandy Hubbard

I see it is now corrected…

http://www.textloansnocreditcheck.co.uk/ kevin Cook

Ppc is costly and you have to more cutios while doing that, you miss a thing your money is gone, but on the other hand seo is much safe as all comes only you need to put some hard work in that.

Erin Monda

Everybody wants to talk about SEO and Social Media — but why is no one touching on the importance of content? SEO’s a necessity for foundational/indexing images; content is absolutely integral and social’s the distribution method. Big changes are rolling down the pipe — and SEO’s going to be less relevant than ever before (in the face fo content/social). http://www.centerline.net/blog/detail/?p=2889.

tom hanks

You are right. SEO is good for social media marketer than PPC. SEO strategies are combined SMM which also help in SMO.

http://www.facebook.com/bond0668 Ravi Teotia

mark u r right…this is need to the smart business.
we provide affordable SEO Service in india,visit here………http://www.teotiatech.com

Duh, no I want to pay-per-click and bid against lead generators LMAO!
http://socialmediasystems.com/real-estate-search-engine-marketing-social-media-advertising/

Pat Grady

with continuing upheaval in SEO, adding other channels including PPC, seems wise to me (but as a PPC consulting agency, my bias is obvious).

http://www.facebook.com/DavidNLamoureux David Lamoureux

PPC is really a competitive landscape without a payoff for a lot of companies. On the other hand, I don’t think PPC is dead by any means. For those who can make it work to generate connections, it’s still delivering. Plus the fact that the PPC arena is littered with secondary adapters who are still converting from traditional media habits will keep it pretty strong for a while. SEO is too new and strange for them.

http://twitter.com/johnelincoln John E Lincoln

I like pay per click. I think social media marketers are intimidated by it in most cases.

Ian Hanson

I agree with others before me, the price of PPC is the main reason we live SEO for marketing in most cases. All being said and done, with PPC is very important and being in 6th position is not necessarily indicative of its approaching death!

Hi, Yes i agree with this that SEO and SMO work together for better optimization.

Abdul Wahab

Well People prefer SEO on PPC because they know they can get SEO services even at low, medium and higher when it comes to PPC. we all know its really expensive as compare to SEO……..

At the end both things have their own benefits and disadvantages…….

PiquetConz

It’s frightening that so many marketers argue over which method is better and being dismissive of another. More skilled sales people and sales managers need to be involved in marketing strategies i say. every business requires a different strategy and the allocated budget is distributed accordingly. All methods can be equally effective if the marketing strategy or marketing mix is correct for the particular business.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Lynn-Brown/1425926990 Lynn Brown

Today’s social media has certainly provided a huge opportunity for businesses to design strategies that will work for their specific industry, product or service. I am seeing more and more that one size does not fit all. Although I know the importance of SEO, social marketing will require diversity which includes some paid advertising as well.

I always appreciate seeing current stats, but I feel we will be talking differently by year end. Has anyone seen what Pinterest has been doing recently, even as of today? Amazing … to say the least!

http://www.conversationware.co.uk Matt Lambert

PPC should be budget neutral. If people are not getting more back than they are putting in, then they haven’t been doing it properly. With phrases that pay, you want both the paid and organic places. Market share makes a huge difference when 0.5% of phrases are responsible for 80% of the income.

Marine Adamyan

Instagram will get even better under Facebook’s influence. There are already a few concepts here: http://bit.ly/IedePg

http://cashinghub.com/ Jeet Das@cashinghub

That is an impressive stats. Really that is why SEO is most important for online marketers. Although PPC helps people get an immediate attention but search engine optimization works for future profit. Gives more profit if it is optimized properly and consistently.

http://www.facebook.com/aussiebob123 Robert Kight

SEO is getting more and more updated and a lot of old methods are just not working,myself i use Marketing coop group to keep up to date and get great info from their skype group.

http://www.shortloans.org.uk/short-text-loans.html Text Loans

Ppc can gives you one time result, as getting an result by Seo , van gives you a long term result..

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